Sunday, July 1, 2012

Star Wars : Planets of the Malicrux IV

PLANETS OF THE MALICRUX

KALISHE is a
vicious jungle world teeming with blood-leafed carnivorous plants, where
monstrous predators stalk cunning prey. It is a deadly place, bathed in the
ominous crimson light of its red giant star, and few attempts to colonise the
planet have met with success. There are but a handful of operations that have
endured these inhospitable conditions, and a couple have even thrived. The
first is an ever-expanding number of clandestine spice plantations run by petty
drug barons under the control of Guuzha the Hutt, who negotiated access to the
jungle under agreement with House Kalishe. The drug lords maintain heavily
armed perimeters and compounds on the tropical archipelagoes, where guards
watch over plantation slaves who are surprisingly upbeat about their situation:
a short life on Kalishe is a better fate than a slow, toxic death on Vorzheva
Prime. The other operation exists in rumour only; it is said that the infamous
Baal Kabuul makes his home deep in the heart of the greatest jungle, where he
co-ordinates a flesh trade with connections spread out across the sector and
beyond. What the Baal makes of Guuzha the Hutt’s presence on his world is
unclear, though the growing number of coordinated attacks by normally solitary
predators hints at the Baal’s displeasure. The Empire shows little interest in
the planet for now, as long as House Kalishe, which receives regular
“contributions” from the Hutt’s representatives, regularly fills its
coffers.

The twin moons of KANTO PRIME and
KANTO SECUNDUS share the same orbit around a barren
terrestrial world that in turn orbits a complicated quaternary star system;
they are always bathed in sunlight, tidelocked to one another, and are bound in
a slow death spiral that will see the two moons collide some time in the next
thousand years. They are close enough now that their atmospheres mingle, and
the gravity of Kanto Prime is strong enough to rip mountains from the surface
of Kanto Secundus. Seismic activity and meteorites are commonplace in regions
where the worlds face each other; but for now the outer faces are relatively
safe. Capitalising on the constant sunlight, the warm and pleasant world of
Kanto Prime has developed an intensive agricultural industry, focusing on
luxury wines that are the toast of the Core Worlds. The financial return on
their produce is so great that House Kanto – who manage the vineyard estates –
has installed a military grade defense grid around their estates to shot down
incoming meteors, and drive off any would be thieves and pirates. The former
galactic senator Duke Orlando Kanto, who can trace his ancestry to Core World
nobility and served until
the collapse of the Republic, personally oversees his ­family run estates
whenever he can, but with the growing influence of the Empire he has come out
of retirement and is spends more and more time on Sapphrica. Politically savvy
and a gifted orator, Duke Kanto is outspoken and critical of Imperial
activities within the sector, and has weathered several attempts on his life. He
is widely considered to be in league with the Rebel Alliance, but he is
critical of them as well, citing the number of innocents killed in the
destruction of the Star Destroyer Ferocious while in
dock at Port Kullus. His duties to the Council on Sapphirica leaves House Kanto
to be run by his daughter Nuala, who has inherited much of her father’s traits.
She oversees House Kanto’s interests, operates out of his duchal palace on
Kanto Secundus, located in the polar mountains just beyond the rim of the gravitational
degradation. House scientists predict the growing gravitational pull will
envelop the palace within one hundred years, but for now the family is safe.
The slow destruction of Kanto Secundus is not without benefits; as the crust is
slowly torn apart, great seams of minerals are uncovered and while very
dangerous, a flurry of mining activity has begun under Nuala Kanto’s
personal supervision.

KELM is a temperate world of
broad plains and jilkawood forests, made famous by the Siege of Kresiela, where
a force of thirteen Jedi took refuge for one thousand days and nights against
an entire legion of clone troopers till finally they were betrayed by one of
their own. Now the former Jedi Temple of Kresiela is an important Imperial
garrison and museum dedicated to the the Fall of the Jedi, examining their
galactic influence and the corruption inherent in such power. Students from
across the sector and beyond come to study the number of Jedi artifacts are on
display, and learn how to identify and report Force-sensitive individuals to
the appropriate Imperial authorities. Visitors are restricted to a limited area
of the Temple and parts of the surrounding jilkawoods; the Imperial garrison
conducts a number of live fire training exercises and whole continents are
designated as proving grounds to test weapons for the war against the
terrorists of the Rebel Alliance. The recently established Imperial city of
Palpatino lies nearby, and is dedicated to the support and logistics of the
Imperial garrison and the museum. The citizenry is loyal and security is
discreet, with recruiting offices producing a number of excellent personnel for
the ever-important logistics of the Imperial Navy.

KLULKHUN is a giant
world in every sense. While it is a rocky terrestrial planet it dwarfs most of
its siblings and rivals gas giants for size, supporting lifeforms of truly
immense proportions that roam the great plains and graze by countless lakes.
Such a large planetary mass generates a heavy gravity that has flattened the
landscape, leaving low mountains and shallow seas. That the creatures here are
as large as they are is a testament to their incredible strength and bone
structure. The heavy gravity has also protected the world from depredation; it
is difficult for most offworlders to work in such taxing conditions, though
there are several generations of indentured beast herders that have adapted to
the gravity. They live their precarious lives in small armoured huts half
buried into the flesh of mighty gygantors, huge eight-legged grazing beasts
that grow several kilometers in length. Here the herdsmen strip prized flesh
from open cuts in the beasts’ flanks – merely a scratch to these creatures -
and their masters sell the delicacy to offworld traders from Sapphirica and
Sinammon, eager to satiate the noblity’s tastes for the exotic.

MEPHIYEH is a
complicated hollowed world full of secrets and mystery. House Mephiyheh's
understanding of orbital physics ensures their rule over the planet is
absolute. Early in the Republic, survey ships found a world rich with ore
and minerals, and mining began. Initially materials were removed from the
planet to be refined and used elsewhere, but as more and more was extracted,
refining and then manufacture developed in the mining cavities. Now the planet
is a hollow sphere with a number of structures are said to orbit within its
confines. The one main entrance to the planet’s interior is guarded by Mephiyeh
troops that operate out of the only surface structure: the Citadel is heavily
fortified and is a cylinder of air locks that control the planet’s internal
environment. Rumours persist that the Citadel is of a scale that will allow
even the largest of Capital Ships to pass within. Inside is a plethora of
superstructures in slow orbit around each other, each with a variable gravity
that the Mephiyeh can control at a whim. These include arcologies, refineries,
manufacturing stations, warehouses, and the ore itself, in massive
free-floating stock piles of material that fuel the planet’s incredible energy
requirements. 100 million souls live in the spinning disks of the
arcologies. For large or heavy stored materials they spin at lower speeds to
simulate lower gravities, liquid or alluvial materials are kept in warehouses
that spin faster, turning them into the largest centrifugal pumps in the
galaxy. All of these objects bar one spin, rotate, gravitate and roll around
inside the planet’s husk. The one object stays in one position relative to the
planet is the Duchal Palace known as the Garden. An oasis of calm within a hive
of industry, the greatest engineers of Mephiyheh and the most illustrious
customers are permitted to visit and pay homage to the scions of House
Mephiyheh. The progenitor of the House and the reason for its might and
independence, was a mathematic genius and a madman that realised that more
of the planet can be used by moving and coordinating the movement of the free
floating bodies inside the husk of the planet. His daughter built on his works,
and held the power of this planet when she used free-floating structures within
the planet to crush all that opposed her. Peace and control has been maintained
by a combination of judicious use of gravitational manipulation and variation,
all of which is a closely hidden secret. With out the help of flight control
navigating between the planetoids is nearly impossible, and has kept the planet
from falling into Imperial possession – for now.